Cardhop 2
Now even more potent for power users
Free (Premium from $4.99/month) From flexibits.com
Made for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Needs iOS 14.1 or later
Cardhop, the contacts manager for iOS and macOS, showed plenty of promise when we reviewed version 1 a couple of years ago. Now, with version 2, much of that early promise has been realized.
New features in version 2 include viewing family trees or organizational chart relationships from Office 365 or Google. However, the most significant change to Cardhop is that it is now more integrated with Flexibits’ other app, Fantastical. You can now invite contacts or groups to new events that you create in Fantastical. And instead of a one-off purchase price, the premium features in Cardhop are now part of the Flexibits subscription, which covers both products, and also has individual and family versions.
Cardhop now also adds Home Screen widgets for use in Notification Center. There are two to choose from: one that displays upcoming birthdays, and another that invokes Quick Actions that you’ve set up, such as calling a specific contact. Each is available in small, medium, or large sizes. There’s also a business card scanner that allows you to take photos of a business card, from which Cardhop will then automatically create a contact for you.
Cardhop, like Fantastical, is built on the ability to understand natural language commands. So for example, if you type “message Kenny lunch on Tuesday?” Cardhop will suggest contacts, tap a contact to select it, and will then open a new message in your preferred messaging app with the message, “lunch on Tuesday?” in the text box, ready to send. If that’s not the correct contact, then you can keep typing in order to narrow down the search, or click one of the other suggestions that are available.
There are lots of actions available in the app’s settings — you can choose which are displayed as Quick Actions. We’re still a little bit confused by the contacts chosen for the ‘Recents’ listing, but other than that, Cardhop 2 is an excellent upgrade overall.
THE BOTTOM LINE. Cardhop 2 is a good update, and the integration with Fantastical makes sense. For anyone who doesn’t use the latter, however, the subscription fee for premium features may feel a little steep.
CARDHOP 2
Integrated with Fantastical
Home Screen widgets
Business card scanner
Could be expensive if you don’t use Fantastical